


In the Frozen Fields

by lilacsilver



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Historical, Darcy and Bucky are siblings, F/M, Yukon Gold Rush, also there's a puppy dog
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-27
Updated: 2014-01-27
Packaged: 2018-01-10 06:33:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1156286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilacsilver/pseuds/lilacsilver
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The year is 1897, and there's gold in the frozen northern wilds. Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes are two of the many hopeful young upstarts willing to bet their lives on finding it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In the Frozen Fields

**Author's Note:**

> Shout-out to Melifair for reading through the first part of this. Thanks!

            Snow drifted through the cracks in the walls of their rough shelter. Steve huddled further under the heavy blanket; on the bunk above him, Bucky did the same. Damn near every night was like this now as winter approached, walling them in. The last boat out had just left, carrying those too smart or too unlucky to stay.

            Even with fewer people around, they couldn’t risk leaving their claim to stay nights in town with Darcy. She had a much sturdier little cabin not too far from Father Judge’s property. The thought of her on her own still didn’t sit well with Steve, though he knew she’d half-kill him for thinking she might not be able to take care of herself.

            “You’re thinkin’ too loud,” Bucky said. “’S keepin’ me awake.”

            “Sorry,” Steve muttered.

            “Yeah, yeah. Get some sleep. Darcy’s comin’ by tomorrow, and I’m the one who’ll get yelled at if you’re not up to her standards.”

            Steve huffed out a quiet laugh. She had always been overprotective, even when it meant going against her brother. The Barnes family had taken him in after his mother’s death, and marrying their oldest daughter had been all but inevitable. Half a year had passed since the wedding; and half again of that they’d been up here in the unforgiving wilds of the Yukon. She hadn’t even given him the option of leaving her behind in Brooklyn.

            “ _We’re a team, remember?_ ” she had said. “ _And you and I both know neither you nor James can cook. You’ll need me._ ”

            With thoughts of his beautiful, stubborn wife in his head, he let himself drift into sleep.

\--

            She was already there when he woke, tending a pot of beans and potatoes over the small fire.

            “Breakfast,” she said. “James is in the mine, so eat up and go help him.”

            He took the bowl she served up. She’d put a good amount of pepper in it, which she swore would help keep him warm – even though all it had ever done was make him sneeze.

            “Bless you,” she said absently, tucking in to the last of the food in the pot. It was then that he noticed her big, wolfish dog waiting up on the hillside.

            “Are you going out hunting?” he asked. “Wish you wouldn’t do that alone.”

            “I won’t be,” she said. “Barton’s offered to go along to help haul back anything I get.”

            He watched her leave with the dog and her gun at her side, bundled up against the biting wind. She was long out of sight before he turned to the dull business of poking around in half-frozen mud for – more often than not – nothing. Oh, they’d found enough to have a few small bars of gold hidden away, but the mine was damn near played out.

            Still, he bent to the task alongside Bucky until he grew hungry again a few hours later. Darcy ought to be headed back by now, and with any luck they’d be dining on meat instead of more beans and potatoes.

-…-

            Darcy would never admit it, but she much preferred the gold fields to her silent cabin. With fewer people in Dawson now, there wasn’t as much laundry for her to take in; she spent much of her time alone and lonely. Had they been back home, she wouldn’t have hesitated to let Steve know how out of sorts she was. But out here things were different, and _she_ had to be different. There was little room for vulnerability.

            She took aim and fired, and the caribou fell. It was big, almost too big to fit on the sled; they’d eat well for days. Barton helped her carry the beast to the sled and tie it down. The team took off at once when he gave the order, and Darcy’s dog kept pace right beside them all the way back to town.

\--

            As it turned out, they ended up sharing the entire caribou with nearby prospectors that night. The smell of roasted meat drew in a dozen hungry men, all of whom gobbled down their helpings and requested seconds. Not a one of them was shy about staring at Darcy, even in the dark when she knew they could hardly see her against the firelight.

            Once the lively gathering broke up, Darcy made to go. She’d never had a problem walking alone from the gold fields to Dawson before, not with the big dog ever at her heels.

            “You oughta stay,” Steve told her. “Head back in the morning when you can see where you’re goin’.”

            She pretended to weigh her options, but there really was no contest. Steve’s warmth won out over the thought of another cold night alone, so she happily snuggled up to him on the too-small bottom bunk. Problems arose when the dog tried to join them, clearly thinking this bed was the same sturdy sort as the one in her house in Dawson. The rough, splinter-laden wood protested loudly, as did Steve. James leaned over to scowl down at all of them for keeping him from his sleep.

            “You’ve been spoilin’ that damn dog,” Steve grumbled, once the malamute had been banished back to the floor. “Lettin’ it sleep in the bed with you.”

            “She’s a sweetheart,” Darcy said. “Complains less than you two.”

            The dog promptly tried to disprove this by ‘talking’ to them at length, probably expressing her dislike of the cold dirt floor. Darcy reached over to pat her on the head, and received a grumpy-sounding sigh in response.

-…-

            Winter held on for a few more months before it finally released its icy grip on the gold fields. They left in late April several hundred dollars richer, having sold everything their little mine had to give, and without the dog. She’d run off to the woods the moment the river began to thaw, and never looked back.

The journey back to New York seemed to pass in a flash, compared to the dragging pace of the trip in the other direction. Before any of them knew it, summer was upon them and the frozen wilds felt less like a memory than a dream.

           

**Author's Note:**

> All of my knowledge of the Klondike/Yukon Gold Rush comes from Wikipedia, frantic Googling, and the (questionably accurate) Discovery Channel miniseries _Klondike_. Any mistakes I have made are probably because of these things.


End file.
